• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Logo for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan
  • Giving
  • News and Events
  • Contact

  • About
    • History
    • Strategic Directions
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
      • CEE DEI Committee
      • DEI Resources
      • Have a concern?
    • Alumni
      • CEE Friends Association
        • CEEFA Board
      • Award Winners
    • Giving
      • Giving Legacy
    • Leadership and Governance
    • Faculty Search
      • Faculty Position in Environmental Engineering
      • Faculty Position in Intelligent Systems
    • Contact
      • Student Services Contacts
      • Master’s Advising Contacts
      • Undergraduate Advising Contacts
  • Undergraduate Studies
    • BSE Degree in Civil Engineering
    • BSE Degree in Environmental Engineering
    • Minor in Civil Engineering
    • Minor in Environmental Engineering
    • FocusCEE
      • Community Policy and Planning
      • Smart Cities
      • Sustainability
    • Undergraduate Opportunities
      • Undergraduate Externship
      • Student Research and Employment
        • CEE SURE/SROP Projects 2023
    • Schedule an Advising Appointment
    • Declare Your Major
    • Careers in CEE
      • What is a Civil or Environmental Engineer?
      • Career Pathways
      • Employers of CEE Graduates
      • How to Recruit CEE Graduates
    • Undergraduate Student Advisory Council
    • Student Life
  • Graduate Studies
    • Master’s Programs
    • PhD Programs
      • PhD Mentoring Framework
      • PhD Candidate Roster
    • Pelham Scholars Program
    • Online Learning
      • Construction Engineering and Management MasterTrack™
    • Admissions Information
      • International Applicants
      • Sequential Undergraduate/Graduate Studies (SUGS) Applicants
    • Graduate Handbook
    • Graduate Student Advisory Council
    • Student Life
  • People
    • Faculty
      • Affiliated Faculty
      • Core Faculty
      • Emeritus Faculty
    • Postdocs
    • Researchers
    • Staff
      • Administrative
      • Finance
      • Human Resources
      • IT & Web
      • Laboratory Technicians
      • Purchasing
      • Student Services
  • Research
    • New Grants
    • Civil Infrastructure Systems
      • Construction Engineering and Management
      • Geotechnical Engineering
      • Intelligent Systems
      • Next Generation Transportation Systems
      • Structural and Materials Engineering
    • Environment and Water Resources
      • Ecohydrology and Hydraulic Engineering
      • Energy and Clean Technology
      • Environmental Chemistry and Soil Physics
      • Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology
    • Smart Infrastructure Finance
    • Urban Collaboratory
    • Facilities
      • Advanced Materials Research
      • Cementitious Composites
      • Center of Excellence in Bridges and Structures
      • Computational Community Resilience
      • Computational Structural Simulation
      • Construction Engineering Lab
      • Geotechnical Engineering Labs
      • Intelligent Structural Technology
      • Next Generation Infrastructure
      • Next Generation Transportation Systems Research Facilities
      • Pavement Research Center of Excellence
      • Structural Engineering Lab
  • Resources
    • Shipping
    • Purchasing
      • Purchasing Frequently Asked Questions
    • Reimbursement
    • IT Resources
    • Lab Safety
      • Lab Safety Basics
      • Minimum Training Requirements
    • Lab Requests and Procedures
    • Room Requests
    • Faculty Intranet
    • Giving
    • News and Events
    • Contact

CEE Students Attend UNLEASH Lab in Denmark

Three Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. students, Christina Reynolds, Kevin Fries and Matt Vedrin, attended the inaugural UNLEASH Lab conference in Denmark in August.

Written by: Civil and Environmental Engineering

October 10, 2017

Three Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. students, Christina Reynolds, Kevin Fries and Matt Vedrin, attended the inaugural UNLEASH Lab conference in Denmark in August.

A group of people smiles in the seating of an auditorium.
Ph.D. students Christina Reynolds, Kevin Fries, and Matt Vedrin attended the UNLEASH Lab conference in Denmark.

UNLEASH Lab was a 9-day event that brought together innovators from all over the world to focus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Applicants for UNLEASH presented a sustainability problem and provided a detailed plan for solving that problem. 1,000 SDG Talents, from over 129 countries, were selected to attend the conference. SDG Talents, a.k.a “ millennial disruptors,” were carefully selected based on their innovative ideas and experience. The talent pool drew from tech entrepreneurs, leading academics, and young development program officers.

The attendees were put into groups based on seven different SDG themes; Health, Food, Water, Education & ICT, Energy, Urban Sustainability, and Sustainable Consumption & Production. Christina Reynolds’ UNLEASH project focused on energy sustainability. Kevin Fries and Matt Vedrin focused their projects on the theme of water sustainability.

“I was a part of the water theme and specifically within that I was focused on access and governance. A lot of the teams focused on creating data sharing platforms, but my team looked at the problem from a different angle, seeing that many data sharing platforms already exist but aren’t being leveraged,” said Kevin Fries.

“We became concerned with how to make data actionable for decision makers. So our project sought to create a benchmarking platform where municipalities could have their data management practices audited and assessed across three broad areas: data quantity/quality, data accessibility and data impact,” Fries added.

During the first few day of the UNLEASH conference, participants talked about project goals and took part in small case challenges with experts. They toured a range of innovative companies around Copenhagen.

Next, the SDG Talents went into the danish countryside, visiting Denmark institutions called Folk High Schools. There they worked on problem framing, narrowing the field down to 10 key sustainability issues, before breaking up into teams of 3-6 people. The teams spent 2 days creating a full SDG implementation plan, including a business model and a financial model. Facilitators from engineering firms were on-hand to advise. After presenting their plans to each other within the theme, the teams voted and 12 teams from each theme moved on to Round Two.

Christina Reynolds’ team project centered around reducing emissions in the transportation sector by promoting electric vehicles. Her team created a model that combines Zipcar with Uber, an electric vehicle fleet with a subscription membership with access to vehicles, as needed. One differentiator was the availability of alternative vehicles, like trucks, vans, hybrids, to help bridge the hesitancy people have about making a total leap to electric vehicles.

“This was my first experience with this type of incubator conference, I am very glad that I participated,” said Reynolds.

In Round Two, the teams pitched their implementation plans to a group of external judges, which included industry experts, investors, and entrepreneurs. From there, teams were chosen to move on to the Final Round. The top two teams pitched their plans at a “Dragon’s Den.” The Final Round was modeled after the television show Shark Tank, with a panel of four experts choosing the winning teams.

Kevin Fries said, “Beyond the project, it was a really valuable and enjoyable experience. I’ve been able to break into a network of people with similar visions about the future of sustainable development and how to get there.”

“The organizers really did create a global community for sustainability. With each year they host UNLEASH, the community will continue to become larger and larger, ” said Christina Reynolds.

Christina Reynolds is an Environmental Engineering Ph.D. student, and Professor Christian Lastoskie is her faculty advisor.

Explore: Civil and Environmental Engineering Students

Footer

Logo for Michigan Engineering at the University of Michigan

  • Giving
  • News and Events
  • Contact
  • Sign up for our newsletter
  • U-M Engineering Home
  • Strategic Vision
  • Graduate and Professional
  • Undergraduate
  • U-M Engineering Research News
  • U-M Home

  • Giving
  • News and Events
  • Contact
  • Sign up for our newsletter

© 2023 The Regents of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA Privacy Policy | Non-Discrimination Policy | Campus Safety

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube